Acomplishing sleep at home is one thing, but mastering sleep at daycare is another!

It can be very stressful and frustrating for parents when their little one will nap like clockwork at home but everything goes out the window on those days they attend daycare.

Most of the time the sleep environment at daycare will be very different to at home. It is likely the room at daycare is lighter as they may not have blackout blinds and they may well be napping in the same room as other little ones.

Try not to stress if your little ones sleep is quite different to the days they are in daycare. A lot of this can be out of your control and it is best to focus on how you can make the situation the best it can be.

You can ask your day care providers if they will allow a portable white noise sound machine. This can help with drowning our background noise and provide some home comfort to your little one.

Tip One: Associations

If your little one has anything they associate with going to sleep, helping them with falling asleep and staying asleep, then ask your day care if these can be taken in with them for naps. These associations could be a comforter, such as a dummy, blanket or soft toy. Sound machine is always a great tool to use, especially if they are used to sleeping with one at home. If your little one does independently self settle to sleep at home, then make sure the day care are aware of this as you do not want to start introducing any unnecessary sleep associations that they will then need in order to fall asleep. For example, feeding to sleep, rocking to sleep.

If your little one does not independently self settle, I would highly recommend to work on this prior to nursery. For example, if you child is reliant on lots of parental help to fall asleep and stay asleep, it is very unlikely this help can be replicated at nursery. The carers won’t be able to spend ages with one just trying to get them to go to sleep for their nap and stay asleep.

Tip Two: Routine/Communication

As most of us are aware, our little ones thrive on routine and when we follow age appropriate awake windows, correct number of naps and a sleep feed play routine, they tend to be a lot more content. This avoids them becoming over or under tired which does then impact night sleep. Before your little one starts day care, it is a good idea to wake them at the same time each morning and make sure they are going to bed at the same time. This will make for a much less stressful morning routine and will ensure you arrive to day care and work on time. It will also mean your little one has adapted to a good day time routine, they will have a consistent routine and then make sure the day care are very clear on your little ones schedule.

Communicate with your day care provider! See how close your day care providers can follow your little ones current routine and make it clear to them the importance of this. Many nurseries can be adaptable and will be willing to follow your routine, even if it is not exact, they are likely to be able to follow something similar.

Tip Three: Power Naps

On the days your little one attends day care, it may be the case their routine does not go quite to plan and they may seem extra tired when you come to collect them at the end of their session. A power nap in the car ride home can help with catching on that missed sleep and anything up to 30 minutes, should not result in a bedtime battle (if your little one is under 12 months old). It can help with over tiredness building up, especially if your little one attends day care multiple days a week in a succession.

However, if your little one can manage to stay awake for the car journey home, this would be the best scenario and and early bedtime would be needed, do not feel worried to bring bedtime forward by 1 hour. Night time sleep is more restorative than day time sleep. So if in doubt, aim for an early to bed and skip the power nap (age dependant). An earlier bedtime will not result in an earlier wake up time, it has the opposite affect! After a stimulating and busy day at nursery and possibly a shorter nap than usual, an early bedtime will help avoid that overtiredness building up!

Tip Four: Be Flexible

It is very likely that your little ones daytime routine at day care will not be exactly the same as it is at home. A lot of day care providers require babies of the same age to be on the similar schedule, whether this be sleep or eating. For example, it may be the nursery has 1 year olds all on a 1 nap schedule but at home your little one naps twice a day. In this instance (if day care cannot follow your routine) I would continue to let your little one nap twice a day at home and stay consistent with your schedule on the days at home. Your little one will adapt to having 2 different routines, so do not panic! Let them have longer naps on non day care days to play catch up with sleep and early to bed is always a good solution!

Tip Five: Focus On Night Sleep (What You Can Control)

If the naps at day care are not going to plan or not the same as they are at home, try not to panic! Work on those self settling skills so your little one can fall asleep and stay asleep without your help. Put them down awake for naps on the days you are at home and down awake when they go to bed for the night. It is common for your little one to have shorter naps or less naps at day care, therefore the power naps as mentioned above are great and / or early to bed.

Tip Six: Over Tiredness

It is a good idea to have regular contact with the day care provider and every time they attend day care to ask them how long your little one slept for. You can then workout how much over night sleep they ideally need in order to roughly achieve age appropriate sleep needs in 24 hours. If you find your little one is doing really long naps at day care, again just make sure the day care workers know when you would like them to be woken. This will stop them becoming under tired for bedtime and impact their night time sleep. If your little one barely slept at day care then consider a power nap and / or early to bed. Sleep at day care is an adjustment and if you feel the current day care is just not the right fit for your child, then I would advise to look at other options. For example, if the day care will not allow your little one to nap twice a day despite them still needing 2 naps. Or it might be the day care only provides floor mats and your little one is still too young or not adjusting well to this and needs a cot. Always ask your day care provider if you are in any way worried or stressed about your child’s sleep.

I hope these tips help ease your mind as you transition your little one to day care. A small amount of preparation and lots of communication will go a long way to achieving day care sleep success!

If you need help with teaching your little one the skill to independently self settle and you would like to hear more about the gentle and responsive methods I use, please book a free discovery call with me. (Book via my home page).

Tips For Sleep At Day Care